Reports indicate that Intel, one of the largest manufacturers of data processors, intends to present a “new low-voltage, energy-saving ASIC Bitcoin mining” known as Bonanza Mine at the upcoming IEEE International Conference on Solid State Circuits in February 2022.
In November 2018, Intel filed a patent outlining similar ideas for “high-performance bitcoin mining.” There is a suspicion that the processes described in the patent may be included in the product offered in the ISSCC.
According to the patent, the ASIC behind the Bonanza mine will be able to perform computations as efficiently as other ASICs while eliminating the need for redundant or redundant computations. This system has been proposed to reduce the total energy consumption by approx. 15%.
Processors used to mine cryptocurrency are known for shortages and declining sales. Intel will compete with the likes of Bitmain, which offers the still-pending Ether ASIC, and Nvidia, the company that has also been hit by several drops in chip sales. The demand for cryptocurrencies is growing steadily despite the constant shortage of processors and fluctuating production costs.
It appears that Intel representatives have confidently entered the new chip mining industry as well, commenting:
“Intel has been designing ASICs optimized for SHA 256 for several years, beginning with pioneering work done in Intel Labs.”
At the time of publication, it is not clear if Intel will launch the Bonanza mine for retail sale or if it will only be used for industrial or research purposes. Either way, this could lead to Intel becoming a major competitor in the crypto-mining industry.
